Buy Handmade!

You won’t find me shopping the Black Friday "sales", as I prefer to purchase from an artist or artisan and buy handmade. I am participating in Small Business Saturday however and I’ll be looking for handcrafted goods or service offered locally by small business. While the masses are out pushing, shoving, waiting in line only to be let down when the deals are not really that good, or what they wanted is gone, I am sitting here with my cup of coffee, sweet music playing, talking to you.
Remember to look for gift certificates for services in your community. Not limited to but including car repair, car wash, child care, housekeeping, providing meals, yard work, snow removal, haircuts (at small locally owned beauty shops/barbers) just keep it small, keep it local! If you plan to visit a coffee shop, try out one of the small, independently owned shops rather than one of the large chains.
A lot of folks tend to believe that if you buy handmade you are either paying way too much or not getting good quality while the opposite is actually true.
The sweetest thing about getting something handcrafted is it is almost always unique. For instance, if you buy a piece of jewelry or a hat from me I guarantee you that you will not see another one like it coming down the street towards you unless you purchased it as a gift. The same is true with most handcrafted goods.
Consider these points:
First and foremost you are supporting your economy, a small business, an entrepreneur, or a stay at home mom perhaps.
The quality you get when you buy handmade in most cases far exceeds the "made in China" goods you can buy at big box stores.
It is easier to shop handmade from home and there are a lot of artisans who offer free shipping and gift wrapping, like myself. No gas to waste, parking spaces to hunt for or lines to stand in. Use keywords like "handmade", "handcrafted", "artisan-created" or you can go to Etsy or, Artfire where they have a large community of wonderful creators. You do have to be careful of Etsy. When they first began everything had to be handmade, not so anymore but all you have to do is hit the "handmade button" and it will limit your search to handcrafted items…almost. I do suspect that some of the shops located in the East are mass produced as they will sometimes have a large quantity for sale or when you look in the "sold" section of their shop they have sold 150 of the EXACT same thing. Making 2 handmade identical-in-every-way items is extremely difficult; just keep that in mind.
You can use the "shop local" feature and discover artisans and crafters you never knew existed right in your own back yard!

I hope everyone will support independent artisan, crafters and small business this year and each year forward. Start small if you like. Commit to buying this way for 3 people on your list.
Have some fun, express your individuality and that of your recipient…shop outside the box!

Call to Artists

Because I love to buy handmade regardless of what I am buying I have decided to have some fun and feature a different handcrafted item and the artisan who created it 3 times week. You will find all sorts of things here, fine arts, fiber arts, artisan created jewelry, pottery, clothing and the list goes on.

My goal is too help other designers and artists promote their work. Let's make the handcrafted market explode together by supporting those who through their creative vision bring beauty into our world.
The artisan will be submitting photos, description of the piece, price, a short Bio and a link to where you can find them on the Internet!
Check back next week for the first one…who will it be?
Are you interested in being featured? Send the above info to info@divelladelights.com






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This necklace features a faceted Swarovski Teardrop in Topaz wire wrapped tornado style with 14K gold filled wire. Genuine Red Aventurine, Turquoise and more Swarovski crystals surround it to a length of 16 inches. The clasp is one of my wire wrapped ( again in 14K gold filled wire) and has a turquoise and a Swarovski. I cannot take credit for the photo...when I put the necklace in the box it just did this!

Creatures from the Sea

Creatures from the Sea
I had a lot of fun with some artisan created lampwork sea creatures. Generations Lampwork made the lobsters especially for me and the Octopus was created by Margo Lampwork. Each creature sits atop a reef of gemstones and pearls they are each the standard 7 inches long. I won’t be getting any more of these cute little guys so once they are gone there won’t be any more. Each one is unique and woven with 4-5 layers of gems, pearls and seed beads. So come to http://www.divelladelights.com/ and take a look at my Lobster jewelry, and the Octopus jewelry while they are still around!

Watchbands, Cell Phones and Puppies

We have a very cute ½ Lab, ½ Pit puppy who has decided that my husband’s watchband and cell phone are really yummy. While I cannot do anything about the cell phone, I was thinking that I might be able to make a watchband.
I started learning micro-macramé about a month ago so I got out some Omega nylon cord (colorfast) and went to work. I decided to do it in black as the watch face is black and it is after all, for a man. Learn along with me or just pop in for a good laugh!
I don’t have much of the watchband done yet but here is my beginning.
I cut 12-56 inch strands of the Omega, as the watch is quite large. I fastened it on the watch using larks head knots. I added one size 4 cube to the center 2 strands then worked left and right side diagonal double half hitch knots. Before you ask I have no idea why it is not just a hitch knot rather than a double half…hmm. I am adding a #8 black matte seed bead in the center every other row of those diagonal double half hitch knots. I would like to put something more colorful in there but I will play with the next one. I have a couple of rescued watch faces for women. I need to keep this one simple as I am just learning.
So far so good. Now I have to fix supper for the poor watchless, phoneless man.

Hand-Made Hostess Gift

Hand-Made Hostess Gifts:
Sometimes coming up with an appropriate Hostess Gift is difficult at best. If they drink wine I can make some of those adorable wine glass charms with a theme to match a home or if it is a single woman I can make some sort of jewelry. If however, it is a couple and they don’t drink wine, as is the case with my brother and sister-in-law then those gifts are not appropriate. I wanted to come up with something for the home and I wanted it to be hand-made.
My sister-in-law is big on Victorian so has lots of pinks, creams and such in her décor. I make knitted hats and fulled bags in addition to my jewelry and had recently made a piece of fabric using some wool left-overs to cut flowers out of for my bags. This sparked an idea for the Hostess Gift I wanted to make.
When I got home I went to the yarn store and found some really pretty vintage rose colored wool and knit up a large piece and fulled it. I bought some creamy natural roving (unspun wool) for the needle-felting portion of the project. I thought about putting a little jeweled charm on the corner of each but decided against it because I was afraid it might scratch the wood on the tables. While the large piece was still damp I cut into 4" squares then let it dry completely.
I wanted to make them match but not exactly as is the Victorian era theme so I needle-felted hearts on each one with the cream roving making them each a little different. Then i just tied it up with a pretty satin ribbon...et voila!
I hope you like the outcome.
If you are going to make items such as these remember when you are knitting to allow for shrinkage. Generally speaking you are going to lose about 25%. The formula for that is to divide your finished size by .75. For example I wanted 4" square so I knit the fabric about 10 2/3 X 10 2/3. That gave me enough to get my coasters and trim them square. Or you could knit them at 5 1/3 each. I use a rotary cutter, which was a little pricey. If I did not have one of these I would probably make them one at a time, as scissors don’t really do a very good job.

Peyote Vase Fixes

Ok so one step at a time. When I made the error of increasing too fast it left a little hole...I wish I would have taken a photo of that before I attached the flower shown here. I took a small vintage Lucite flower, a genuine pearl and attached it over the hole with a 3-seed bead picot. If you look to the right of the flower there is a spot I don't like so I making a Russian Leaf to put there and actually I will put this leaf in progress and 2 smaller ones for a little grouping to be more aesthetically pleasing.
I have searched for and looked at and purchased a lot of Russian Leaf instructions and have 2 favorites. I need to have instructions that are very clear and detailed. I learn best by doing so the whole reading and applying is not the easiest for me. I found 2 sources that are excellent: Russian Leaf Instructions by Suzanne Cooper available here http://www.suzannecooper.com/ and this Shanasta Saling's instructions for a Russian Leaf Pendant in the Bead and Button book here: http://books.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?WRD=the+best+of+bead+and+button
If you are looking for some good instructions take a look at these and save yourself some money and time.
Back to the vase...So I will put little groupings of flowers and leaves here and there to incorporate it all into the design. Come back and see the progress continue.

Morea about Merchants

I have a very small business I run out of my home, which finds me knitting, crocheting and making jewelry into the wee hours. I sell my jewelry to the local jewelry store that also imports all the gold, silver, diamonds you see in ever jewelry store in the country. For over 3 months the only jewelry sold was that which was handcrafted locally. It turns out to be a win-win for everyone involved. So why is it that all those folks, on say for instance Newbury Street in Boston does not buy handmade?
I recently went down there on the suggestion of many friends and the folks who own the jewelry store I spoke of earlier. Everyone seemed to think my goods fit in very nicely down there. What I heard from shop owners stunned me. I will give them one thing in Boston, they are quite honest! They told me and I quote…" We know the quality is not as good but it is cheaper and that is the bottom line" from one shop owner. " Wow, your merchandise is beautifully made but we can get it so much cheaper from China and because it does not last as long they keep spending their money here..." From another What amazes me is that people don’t even expect things to last very long and they would rather have something cheap and buy it 5 times. How did we become such a throw away society?! AND THAT IS OK?! Well folks, I can’t go along with that. I am convinced I will find my niche. I will not lower my standards, it has become my mantra! It would be so easy to pitch it all in, buy cheap materials, not care about the workmanship so I can sell cheap. I say easy but not really so. I want to feel good about what I am doing, the service I am providing. When someone makes a purchase from me I want him or her to be thrilled, not just happy. Furthermore, I want them to pass their treasures down to the next generation. So I keep plodding along with true hope in my heart. Speaking of hope, I know that word lately is like the word ‘love’ over used and abused. But that is another story…